


for love (if it finds you worthy)

by peacefrog



Series: box of chocolates [1]
Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:07:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22719652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peacefrog/pseuds/peacefrog
Summary: Eliot walked into the penthouse to an eerie quiet. He found Quentin sitting in the kitchen under a dim illumination spell, drinking a beer and poking at the screen of his phone.
Relationships: Quentin Coldwater/Eliot Waugh
Series: box of chocolates [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1652323
Comments: 20
Kudos: 197





	for love (if it finds you worthy)

Eliot walked into the penthouse to an eerie quiet. He found Quentin sitting in the kitchen under a dim illumination spell, drinking a beer and poking at the screen of his phone.

“Hey,” Eliot said, setting his shopping bag down on the counter. “Where is everyone?”

Quentin sighed, rubbing at his eyes. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days. “Out. I don’t know.”

Eliot squinted at him. “You didn’t want to go with them?”

Quentin lifted his eyes, shot Eliot a look. “No.”

“When’s the last time you left this place?”

Quentin groaned. “I don’t know. Does it matter?” His eyes flicked between Eliot and the bag on the counter. “Where were you?”

Eliot’s pulse picked up just a little. “I don’t know,” he teased, shooting Quentin a smile. “Does it matter?”

Quentin glared at him. “If you’re going to be a dick, Eliot, I’m really not in the mood.”

Eliot sighed and leaned against the counter, studying Quentin’s haggard face in the dim light. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m not trying to be a dick. I just… genuinely want to help, Q.”

“Help with what?”

Eliot shrugged. “You tell me.”

Quentin met his eyes but didn’t say a word. It had been months since the Monster, months since they’d all defeated Everett without breaking the world or themselves in the process. Magic had returned, and everything was quiet. And maybe, Eliot thought, that was entirely the problem. Quentin Coldwater spinning his wheels was a dangerous thing.

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Quentin said finally, spinning his legs around and hopping out of his seat. He stretched his arms up over his head, he ran his fingers through his hair. He downed the last swig of his beer and went to the fridge for another.

“You can say anything to me, Q,” Eliot said to his back. “Or not. It’s up to you. Just like it’s up to you if you open that beer, or let me make you a real drink.”

Quentin froze, set the bottle back down in the fridge, spun around and shut the door. “Yeah,” he said, giving the tiniest hint of a smile. “Let’s do that.”

Eliot made them each a gin martini, and they flopped down onto the sofa to drink them, sitting so closely together their knees brushed every time they moved. Eliot gazed over his shoulder at the bag on the kitchen counter, feeling like he might just be losing his nerve. Quentin stared out into the darkness beyond the windows, not saying anything at all.

“So...” Eliot said, breaking the long stretch of silence. Desperate for anything but the growing noise inside his head telling him he was, in fact, a coward.

Quentin turned to him slowly. “So…”

Eliot said, “You haven’t been sleeping,” and Quentin quirked a brow, took a sip of his drink. 

“So what.”

“So… you saved the world, Quentin. All of magic. Me.” At that last one, Quentin met Eliot’s eyes. “You deserve to rest.”

Quentin let a sad little laugh fall from his chest. “I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

“Yeah, well, staying up for days at a time tends to do that to a person.”

“It’s not that,” Quentin said with a sigh, turning his eyes away. “It’s… I’m…”

“Restless?”

Quentin breathed in, pushed it out. “Something like that,” he said, his voice broken and small.

Eliot downed the last of his drink, set the empty glass down on the table, touched Quentin gently on the shoulder. “There are things other than saving the world that can make you feel good, Q.”

Quentin frowned down into his glass. “Name something.”

“You’re serious?” Eliot gave him a smile that quickly faded, pulling his hand away. “Okay. Well, a gin martini for one.”

Quentin’s mouth twitched with the promise of a smile that never quite formed, and Eliot continued.

“Food. Puppies. Naps. Your friends.” He took a breath. “Sex. Love…”

Quentin downed the last of his drink, set the empty glass next to Eliot’s, was silent for a long time after. “Those sound like things for somebody else,” he said finally, gazing out into the quiet night.

Eliot let the words form carefully on his tongue before he said them, his heart stumbling wildly in his chest. “You loved me enough to risk your life to bring me back,” he said. “And you don’t… think that you deserve the same?”

“I don’t know,” Quentin said, his eyes damp when he met Eliot’s gaze. “El, I…”

A little ache blossomed in Eliot’s chest. “Q,” he said with a sigh. “I’m sorry.”

Quentin’s lip quivered as he looked away. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m just tired, okay. I’m just…”

Quentin buried his face in his hands, and Eliot fought the urge to pull him into his arms. Instead, he reached back, called the bag over to him from the counter with a quick flourish of his hand. He cradled the bag gently in his lap. He put his hand inside.

“So, um…” he started, feeling his nerve slipping more by the second. “I… I don’t know if this will make things better or worse, but I… got you something.”

Quentin lifted his face, his expression etched with confusion. “Okay…”

Eliot pulled his hand out of the bag, and with it a little heart-shaped box of chocolates. He’d ruled as High King of another land and faced down literal gods and even died a time or two, but Eliot had never been more terrified. And he’d never felt more foolish than he did passing the little box to Quentin, his hands trembling the whole time.

“It’s, uh… I know Valentine’s Day is commercial bullshit,” he said, his voice cracking pathetically. “And the day is almost over. I… I don’t know what I was thinking, I…”

“El.” Quentin’s expression was happy and sad all at once. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to, uh… interpret this.”

A fit of nervous laughter ripped out of Eliot’s chest. “You can interpret it as your best friend being an idiot. I’m… sorry. I—”

“Are you asking me to be your valentine?” Quentin gave him a genuine smile then, albeit an exhausted one.

“I don’t know.” Eliot bunched the empty shopping bag into a tight fist before tossing it onto the rug. “What if I am?”

Quentin laughed, thumbing at the plastic covering the heart-shaped box. “I’d say I’m probably in no state of mind to make a decision like that right now.”

Eliot’s stomach dropped. “Okay. That’s… fair.”

Quentin gave him a smirk. “But I’d also say that when I wake up from the nap I’m about to ask you to take with me, my answer is going to be yes.”

Eliot laughed again, sounding just this side of delirious. “So you do think you deserve it.”

Quentin shrugged. “I don’t know, El,” he said. “But maybe I’d like to try.”

Eliot put his arm around Quentin then, and pulled him close, pressing a soft kiss to his forehead. “I’d like that,” he said. “And I’m sorry about… before. You know, when I…”

Quentin sighed, and let his body go slack against Eliot’s side, resting his head on his shoulder. “That sounds like a post-nap conversation, El.”

“Yeah,” Eliot said. “Yeah. Okay. Your bed or mine?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Quentin mumbled, already sounding like he was drifting.

Eliot smiled, pressed a kiss to the top of Quentin’s head, carefully took the chocolates from his lap and tossed them aside. Their bodies tangled together there on the sofa, gently, and Eliot let his eyes fall shut.

**Author's Note:**

> I got the sudden urge to give these two something for Valentine's Day, so I ended up writing this in about an hour before bed last night. I hope you all have a lovely day filled with chocolate and naps. 💖


End file.
